882.01 Winship Mission/75: Telegram
The Special Commissioner for Liberia (Winship) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 15—3:15 p.m.]
44. Your 27, May 10, 6 p.m.41 Barclay and I today issued the following statements:
“As a result of conferences held during the past 5 weeks between His Excellency the President of Liberia and Major General Winship, Representative of President Roosevelt on Special Mission to Liberia, substantial progress has been made toward settling on a basis of mutual accommodation the differences between the Government of Liberia and the Finance Corporation of America.
[Page 913]Mr. Lyle, vice president of the Finance Corporation, has made certain offers on behalf of his company which include anticipated reduction in the interest charges on the 1926 loan, provision for regularizing the status of past due interest and amortization, and revision of salaries of the American fiscal officers. Should these proposals become effective a saving to the Government of Liberia of approximately 50,000 gold dollars per annum for the duration of the loan is contemplated, as well as special provision for meeting revised interest charges during the period of business depression and curtailed government revenues.
The concessions offered to the Government by the Finance Corporation in the above respects are conditioned upon the prior agreement of the Government to the reestablishment of the depository agreement with the United States Trading Company—banking department, the reestablishment in full authority of the American fiscal officers, and the acceptance by the Government of various modifications in the loan agreement of 1926 designed to clarify the status of the fiscal officers, facilitate the efficient functioning of the financial advisership, and settle a number of questions of interpretation which have caused friction in the past.
Final agreement on the points still outstanding will be sought in Geneva, where a meeting of the International Committee on Liberia of the Council of the League of Nations will be held as soon as the Liberian representative and General Winship have reached Switzerland. The Honorable the Secretary of State, Mr. Louis A. Grimes, and General Winship and suite, will sail from Monrovia on the steamer Canada for Marseille on May 13, 1933. Mr. Lyle will sail at the same time.[”]
- Not printed.↩